| August 22, 2005 | Monday | Rajab 16, 1426 |
Non-citizen agenda
Missing the left and the right of it
YOU’VE HEARD it in cricket parlance that when the ball is missing the left and the right wickets it’s usually headed for the middle stump. So what would you think of it if you heard a dyed-in-the-wool neo-con US envoy to India singing fulsome praise of our communist-led Left Front government in West Bengal, especially its economic reforms?
“Governments play an important role in setting the ground rules for much business activity,” Ambassador David Mulford told a meeting of possibly shocked businessmen in Calcutta last week.
“Prime Minister (Manmohan) Singh and your leadership in West Bengal have put economic reform at the top of their agenda,” Mr Mulford declared. “They have displayed a remarkable sensitivity to the changing times and aspirations. The leadership in West Bengal especially has been able to introduce a new dynamism in the business and economic environment that has been drawing great attention from the business community in the United States.”
The rare words of praise from a renowned free-market economist for one of the world’s largest and most influential communist parties went virtually unreported in the Indian media. But that is only part of the story. Are we missing something more here, something about the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has ruled the politically high profile state since 1977 without a break?
On the face of it CPI-M never seems to lose an opportunity to berate US Imperialism at work in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and elsewhere, including India. Its loud opposition to the civilian nuclear deal that Prime Minister Singh signed with President George W. Bush is only too fresh in our memory. Its resolute opposition to the once proposed but now put off partial privatization of BHEL, a major state-owned unit, earned it a range of sobriquets from business clubs — damp squib, stick in the mud, kill joy and what have you.
The CPI-M shores up Dr Singh’s centrist Congress party government, which is believed to be inclined to keel heavily to the right on key economic and political issues but for an alert and strident Left Front. A new leadership recently took charge of the CPI-M, which has lurched from its pro-China and pro-Vietnam phases since its break from the pro-Soviet line that divided Indian communists in the 1960s.
Today, for want of a better description, it appears to have struck a vague solidarity if not an alliance with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and other staunchly anti-West leaders.
Despite its pragmatic acceptance of the ‘need of the hour’, which it interprets to mean a calibrated openness to foreign capital in selected industries, the CPI-M and its junior leftist partners have shunned neo-con economic policies and their concomitant militarism that dominates the Bush administration.
So it becomes even more striking that an American envoy should focus his praise for the CPI-M’s economic policies. Not just that, Mr Mulford in fact went on to laud the CPI-M’s labour reforms, usually a euphemism for Western style hire and fire industrial regime, something not associated with the CPI-M’s worldview.
What did the American ambassador mean when he told his audience that “in addition to the West Bengal government’s welcome of foreign investment, we have seen its recent efforts to promote growth, and its willingness to adapt labour laws to the special circumstances of the IT industry, and to close loss-making public enterprises”?
Mr Mulford must have realized the potentially blasphemous nature of his observations because he quickly cushioned his comments with diplomatic finesse. “I recognize that these reforms must be politically viable to survive; yet there are a number of mutually beneficial strategic reforms that could contribute significantly to India’s progress and encourage American business to invest in India’s future.”
The CPI-M has its critics both on the right and the left of India’s political spectrum. In fact some of the so-called Maoist groups regard CPI-M leaders as class enemies. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya, a possible object of Mr Mulford’s praise, is actually on the hit-list of the People’s War Group (PWG), a powerful group that straddles several southern states in alliance with other Maoist or Naxalite groups. The Congress swept to power in Andhra Pradesh 15 months ago, largely with the tacit support of the PWG.
But on the day Mr Mulford was making his landmark speech in Calcutta, the Andhra Pradesh government had moved to ban assorted groups loyal to the PWG. Some of its senior sympathisers were arrested. There is a general belief among Naxalites that the ban would not have been possible without the consent of the CPI-M. There is ground for this belief. The CPI-M had opposed the move when the Congress party government in Andhra Pradesh had sought to hold peace talks with the PWG.
The formal ban on the Maoists, whose members are mainly Dalits and the virtually disenfranchised tribes-people, is probably a forerunner to a massive crackdown on them right across the country. It is not a small coincidence that all the arrests and the bans happened during the presence in Andhra Pradesh of the World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz.
Mr Wolfowitz is not only a leading neo-con ideologue, but he is also co-author of the American invasion of Iraq. His stated purpose of visit to Andhra Pradesh was to see some of the projects of rural development and poverty alleviation that the World Bank has been financing in the state. Was it a mere coincidence then that his visit may have signalled India’s own version of the global war on terrorism, where in the absence of Muslim extremists, the Maoists will be hunted?
And if this is indeed true, then how is the CPI-M going to come out clean from the rightward lurching mess? Or has the party accepted what seems like Ambassador Mulford’s kiss of death as a precondition for its sustenance as major political force in India?
HAS Delhi police’s trigger-happy ‘encounter’ expert Rajbir Singh come to the end of his bloody innings? A police inquiry has been ordered against the man responsible for dozens of controversial deaths, including several alleged Kashmiri militants in Delhi. Rights activists had approached the government to cancel his numerous decorations and awards. But now the man has been caught on ‘tape’ talking to a narcotics dealer in what is looking like a major land scandal. A police inquiry is on.
jawednaqvi@gmail.com
The first phase of the local body elections in the metropolis ended without any serious law and order problem. There was of course the usual pre-poll rigging and stuffing of ballot boxes which has become part of politics in countries like ours. We don’t even feel ashamed of it. The government unfortunately thinks that only statements are enough to make the process free, fair and transparent.
The final outcome in Karachi only proved that in our political system good work on the ground does not matter. Political affiliation and allegiance are more important. Political pundits had thought that the projects undertaken by the previous city government would create new political alignment and constellations. But those who had set up such a benchmark were routed.
Fears of a massive blood bath expressed during the election campaign kept many people away from the polling stations. The fears were not totally unfounded. But the rulers pulled a fast one and exploited the hype to their advantage. Whatever may be the case, Karachians must be happy, for the time being, and the rulers can take credit for projecting a positive image of the metropolis as a peaceful city and hub of business and industrial activity.
The issue of terrorism and extremism dominated the allegation-marred campaign that should have been focussed on bread and butter issues. The common citizen’s concerns were obscured in the campaign which appeared to be influenced by an international agenda. During the whole campaign, civic issues, which are the main concerns of the lower tier of the government, were only mentioned to malign the opposition. The ruling coalition issued a long list of projects, claiming credit, but they were nothing more than taking credit for someone else’s work.
If Karachi must become an international city, the new rulers must set up a better benchmark. No one, especially the ruling coalition’s proxies, respected the code of conduct issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan. The CEC did not take serious notice of such complaints while police acted as silent spectators.
Thus, on to the second round.
Hold on to your wallets, hide your cellphones, keep checking your pockets and never, ever count your money in public. Petty thieves are on the prowl and very active these days, flicking any and everything off you at the smallest available opportunity.
A friend recounted the most bizarre theft the other day, where the swindler walked off with a sizeable amount of money by literally taking it from the victim’s hand.
Standing in queue before a teller in a multinational bank, the friend was waiting his turn to deposit some money. While waiting he decided to count his money again, just to be sure of the correct amount. A person slowly edged in from behind and in the most helpful way mumbled something about holding the money properly and reached out to adjust the roll of bills, turning them over and saying this is how one should hold currency notes.
This friend, who trusts every man on the street, didn’t quite understand what was being said and simply nodded, half allowing the nosey fellow to adjust the bills in his hand. At the same time another fellow claimed his attention, asking some inane question about where to get prize bonds, at which our friend looked up and said he didn’t know.
When he finally reached the teller’s counter, the friend was aghast when the teller told him that the money was short by Rs10,000. Turning around, he discovered that the two men – the one who had ruffled the currency notes and the other who had asked the meaningless question – were no more in the line.
The bank could do little except replay the CCTV recording of the counter and confirm the story. The ten thousand had to be kissed goodbye; the police report will be of little use if past experience is any guide.
Most Karachians pay taxes on a monthly basis on utilities like water and electricity that are not available at all times. But the people of Ghaghar Goth, the last village in Karachi bordering Thatta, pay a tax for a service they do not at all use.
Close to Ghaghar Goth is a rail line that runs across the National Highway. Closure of the main highway between Karachi and Thatta for passage of trains used to cause long traffic snarls in the past. The government constructed a bridge over the rail line so that traffic on the National Highway could move unhindered. It then imposed a toll tax on vehicles using the bridge to recover its maintenance cost.
The tax is collected at a check-point ahead of the bridge. Since residents of Ghagar Goth do not use the bridge, they take the branch road off the National Highway that goes to their locality. But since they cross the check-point, they have to pay the tax twice: once when they leave their locality and once when they get back home. The tax thus collected goes into the kitty of the National Highway Authority, which can easily devise a mechanism to exempt residents of Ghaghar Goth from the tax.
It is not uncommon in Pakistan for local currency to sell at a premium – a practice frowned upon in tightly regulated money markets. One remembers how pan-chewing, smooth-talking vendors in Boulton Market sold wads of Re1, Rs2 and Rs5 notes at a premium ranging between Rs15 and Rs35 for Rs100.
Sold on the black market, the currency notes were used to make garlands for weddings and other festive occasions. Those given to ostentatious display of wealth used Rs500 or Rs1,000 notes. Government efforts to check the trade bore little fruit until the low-denomination notes were replaced by coins.
Illegal trading of local currency has been revived with the recent launch of the new Rs20 notes. A buyer of the new note could sell it for Rs50 at the day of its launch. The premium subsequently slid to Rs30.
Those who deal in local currency say they have no clue why there is such a huge demand for the new note – better looking, by all accounts, than other currency notes in circulation. But they point out that the demand is, to a certain extent, attributable to the State Bank’s policy of issuing only 10 bills to a buyer at a time. (Initially, the bank sold only five bills to a buyer at a time.) They think that this policy is partially responsible for a shortage of Rs5 banknotes in the open market which may have been the cause for the greater demand.
There is a question mark now about who shall claim the top spot of the Karachi City District Government. At this point it is mostly conjecture but chances are that Niamatullah Khan will not be returning to the top slot, and the office of nazim will most probably be occupied by an MQM-supported person.
As is the time-honoured tradition in Pakistan, the policies of one dispensation are conveniently sent into the dustbin once a new set-up takes over. One hopes in Karachi’s case this won’t be so. But things don’t look too peachy, a case in point being the slow disappearance of the ‘green’ or Swede buses that used to ply the route between Merewether Tower and Surjani Town, ploughing through the heart of former District Central (another route, from Tower to Surjani taking the Liaquatabad direction was mysteriously wound up a while back). A few months ago, in the middle of a debilitating heat wave, the air-conditioning units of the buses clunked out. From then on it was all downhill.
One could swear that almost immediately after the previous city administration was relieved of its duties, the buses disappeared altogether. The commuters are now in a real fix as the buses – part of the KPTS – were a welcome alternative to the ordeal that one has to endure while travelling to and from work by the regular buses. Yet, a few days ago a Swede bus was spotted waiting at the Tower stop. Indeed the buses are back on the road but their condition is deplorable. The bus was incredibly dirty, and the old system of issuing a printed ticket has been done away with, as the conductor now hands you a paper ticket. Previously passengers used to purchase tickets as they boarded; now the conductor wanders around issuing them after the passengers have boarded. Also, the frequency seems to have been reduced, as it seems the owners have curtailed the number of vehicles.
Is this another good project sacrificed at the altar of political expediency? One hopes not.
— By Karachian
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